Success at last!! I blogged previously about getting closed captioning with Netflix Watch Instantly movies (or rather NOT getting captioning) (Click here to see previous post.) and “Tim” gave me some suggestions including recommending buying Apple TV (Thank you, Tim!). I got the Apple TV, but still never got it working….until today!! Tim’s suggestion along with guidance from my friend, Joe (Thanks, Joe!) and a little exploring led to success! So glad it finally works that I have to share this with everyone.
First, if you haven’t updated your Apple TV software lately, go to Setting>>General>>Update Software.

Remember to use the “menu” button to go back to any previous screen. There’s probably more than one way to do this, but this is what worked for me:
1. Go to “Settings”.
2. Go to “Audio & Video”.
3. Scroll down to “Subtitle Language” and select “English”.
4. Scroll down to “Closed Captions” and select “On”.
That should do it!
Then….
While watching a movie, hold the select button (round silver button) and you will have the option of turning CC on or off from there. Can’t wait to watch my next movie! By the way, Apple TV has a lot of other functions, so it is worth the purchase. If anyone else has success with this or other solutions, please let me know.

The Hearing Loss Association of America has posted a series of videos about hearing assistive technology on their website. The first one,”Assistive Listening Technology,” reinforces what I have been stressing in this blog: “Get a telecoil (t-coil) in your hearing aids!!”

I love to read about young people who are making a difference. Hayleigh Scott is doing just that. She was featured in Hearing Loss Magazine’s Jan/Feb 2011 issue, and glad to see she is now featured in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue. If you are an HLAA member, you can read it online: An Unlikely Friendship by Hayleigh Scott and Netagene Kirkpatrick.

I met Hayleigh at the HLAA 2011 Convention and was so impressed with her! Hayleigh, now 13 years old, has her own business selling charms for hearing aids and cochlear implants. She even has her own website: www.HayleighsCherishedCharms.com

Hayleigh started making jewelry for hearing aids because she saw kids in her school wanted to hide their hearing aids under their hair. Hayleigh wanted to “make my hearing aids shine and be fancy and proud of my hearing aids.” Hayleigh is helping eliminate the stigma of wearing hearing aids for other young people such as “Brooke” who wrote:

“I want to let you know I use to be scared to let people see my hearing aids but now that you inspired me I am not scared any more thanks!”

This young entrepreneur donates 10% of proceeds to furthering hearing research and education of the hard of hearing and deaf community.. Let’s help Hayleigh by buying her jewelry and showing off our hearing aids and cochlear implants! I just ordered 2 pairs!

Deaf in one ear? Perfect hearing in the other? No problem, right? WRONG! Single-sided deafness (SSD) can be a debilitating condition. SSD can cause difficulty determining the direction of sounds, inability to hear sounds at all from a particular direction, and inability to separate background noise from target sounds.

Treatments for SSD vary from surgically implanted devices to non-surgical devices, but they all work by transferring the sound from the deaf ear to the good ear. Surgical devices such as the The Baja System by Cochlear and the Ponto Implant System by Oticon have been used for some time, but now there are non-surgical options on the market.

The Phonak CROS uses a transmitter in the deaf ear to wirelessly transmit the sound to a receiver in the good ear.

The newest device is the Alpha 1 Hearing System by Sophono. Although the Alpha 1 (M) is implanted, it uses a magnetic coupling so there is no abutment as with the Baha and Ponto. Sophono also offers the Alpha 1(S) which is a non-surgical device worn with a headband.

Have you tried one of these treatments for SSD? If so, please let us know how it worked for you.